Racing Against the Machine
Posted: November 9, 2023 Filed under: Musing Comments Off on Racing Against the MachineThe pace of new technology seems to get faster every year. In my job doing automation engineering, I’ve seen how once all the parts of a system are ready, progress can explode exponentially. I’m worried as AI and agent swarms get closer to generalized intelligence, they will quickly make many jobs and skills obsolete – including my own.
Just last week, I was telling my parents I’m concerned I may not have unique skills to offer anymore. Right now, connecting all the pieces of AI into a fully autonomous system is still complicated. But not for long. When those last key elements like agent coordination arrive, everything will work together and we’ll see sudden rapid advancement.
I’m not sure if most people are ready for this pace of change. I’m not even sure if I’m ready myself.
Multiple exponential technologies will boost each other, speeding things up even more. There may come an abrupt point where progress becomes so fast it’s hard to control and uses enormous resources.
I worry about new graduates entering a job market changed by AI. But I also know we humans don’t understand exponential change well. The future may look very different than we expect.
For now, I’m reassured that building AGI is like making an engine – it needs all parts to work seamlessly together. We still lack some essential pieces.
For now.
But once that last piece clicks into place, the engine of AI will roar to life and race ahead faster than we can foresee today. My goal is to enjoy the ride, and adapt my skills to stay ahead of the tech changes as long as I can.